“Lord Teren said that Lord Kristion had named him.”
Samira groaned. “I can tell that this is going to be complicated.” She and Clyton started forward at a walk that Lena could easily keep pace with. “Let’s go face the noise.”
:Stay in the woods,: Lena told the dogs as she accompanied Samira and Clyton toward the main entrance to the estate.
“Have they set a time for the funeral yet?” Samira asked.
“This afternoon.”
“It is afternoon,” Samira pointed out. “When this afternoon?”
Lena cast an anxious look at the angle of the sun. “The ninth hour,” she said in a small voice.
“Less than an hour from now. I need to wash and change into a clean uniform, and you look as though you dressed in the dark and then spent the day in the kennels and the woods.”
“I did.”
Samira’s eyes closed briefly and then opened again. Apparently she had been Mindspeaking to Clyton, because he stopped long enough for Samira to reach down, grasp forearms with Lena, and swing her onto Clyton’s back. “What’s the fastest way to reach the stables without Lady Shantell seeing us?”
They left Clyton being rubbed down by the Stablemaster, and Lena turned Samira over to the housekeeper to be shown to a guest room. Then she ran for her room, washed in the now-cold water that someone had left out for her that morning, and pulled on a dress that was suitable for the funeral. She slipped quietly into the chapel, aided by the fact that most of the household was gathered there. Samira, resplendent in the dressy version of her Whites, was seated in the front next to Shantell and Jasper. Lord Teren was in the back of the chapel, trying to be invisible. Either he succeeded or Shantell didn’t deign to notice him, and the funeral service and the burial that followed it went as well as could be expected.
After the funeral, it was customary to read the will. They gathered in the library: the priest, who had charge of the document; Lady Shantell; Jasper, who despite his young age was now Lord Jasper; Samira; Lena, partly because Jasper wanted her there and partly because Samira had requested her as a neutral high-born witness; and Lord Teren. Shantell protested his inclusion, but the priest told her it was needful, and her piety—at least for the moment—overcame her wrath.
The moment ended abruptly when she discovered that her husband had named Lord Teren to be Jasper’s guardian. “Should my son be forced to face his father’s murderer?” she demanded indignantly.
The priest said something about forgiveness; Lena couldn’t make out the exact words, because Samira’s voice overrode his.
“Normally we could ask the local Magistrate to hear this case,” she started, but Shantell interrupted her.
“He’s the Magistrate!” she exclaimed passionately. “Do you think he’ll rule justly on his own actions?”
“That’s why Valdemar has Heralds,” Samira reminded everyone. “I ride this Circuit so that I can hear cases where normal practice cannot be used, and I believe that this one qualifies. Does anyone disagree?”
Shantell fell silent.
Lord Teren spoke sadly. “I yield this case to your judgment, Herald Samira. I agree that I am not the person to rule on it, being involved myself.”
“Please,” Jasper added. “Everyone’s so angry, and they keep yelling.”
The priest nodded agreement. “Obviously this was not the situation Lord Kristion envisioned when I drew up his will.”
“Very well,” Samira said. “Lord Teren, are you willing to answer the accusation of murder under Truth Spell?”
“Absolutely.” Lord Teren looked grim but not at all afraid.
Samira cast the Truth Spell, and Lena watched with fascination as a blue glow appeared over Lord Teren’s head.
“Who went hunting with you and Lord Kristion?”
“In addition to the two of us, there were three servants and seven hunting dogs.”
“Was it your arrow that shot him?”
“Yes.” His voice held anguish, but the blue glow remained steady.
“Did you intend to shoot him?”
“No. Never. We became separated in the woods, and I had no idea that he had circled around so that he was opposite me. The servants were with me, so they didn’t know either.”
“What was he wearing?”
Teren looked blank. “I don’t remember.”
Lena must have made some sound, for Samira looked at her. “Do you know what he was wearing, Lena?”
“Yes.” And it was one of the most stupid things anyone could wear to go hunting. “Brown boots, brown pants, and a deerskin jacket.”
Samira looked at her incredulously. “Deerskin? Are you positive of that?”
I certainly can’t blame her for not believing me.
“That’s correct,” the priest said. “I saw his body when it was brought home, and that’s what he was wearing.”
Samira managed to refrain from comment on Lord Kristion’s clothing choices. “Lord Teren, do you swear that your shooting of Lord Kristion was accidental and that you had no reason or desire to kill him?”
“I do so swear.”
Despite the steady glow of the Truth Spell, Shantell cried out “That’s not true! He wanted the dogs! He said so, this morning in the chapel!”
“That’s not what I said!” Lord Teren protested.
“Was anyone else in the chapel with you?” Samira asked.
Teren pointed at Lena. “She was.”
I think he forgot my name again.
“Lena?” Samira asked. “What did they say?”
As Lena opened her mouth to answer, Samira held up a hand. “Wait. I’m going to put a Truth Spell on you before you answer.”
Lena nodded her consent and sat quietly until Samira gestured her to continue. “Lady Shantell came in at dawn, near the end of my vigil. Lord Teren had come in earlier and was sitting near the back of the chapel. When she saw him, she called him a murderer. He said it was an accident, and she said that he enjoyed killing—he and the dogs. What he said then was that if having the dogs here was distressing to her, he could remove them to his estate so that she wouldn’t have to see them. Then she said that she’d have every single one of them killed before she’d let him profit—and then she went to the Kennelmaster and ordered the dogs killed.”
“Did you hear her give that order?”
“No, but when I went to the kennels as soon as I got out of the chapel, Jasper was there with the Kennelmaster, and they both said that she had ordered the dogs killed.”
“She did,” Jasper said positively. “I heard her. And I don’t want the dogs killed. And the priest said that the dogs are mine now.”
Samira held up a hand again. “We’ll get back to that in a minute, Lord Jasper. Lord Teren, did you or do you have any plans to profit from the dogs?”
Lord Teren shook his head wearily. “No. I will never hunt again. My only thought was to give the dogs a home where they would not trouble Lady Shantell.”
The blue glow of the Truth Spell remained steady. Samira took a deep breath and said, “On the charge of murder, I find Lord Teren innocent. Lord Kristion’s death was accidental.”
“He still killed my husband!”
“True, but he did not murder him. There is a difference.”
“My husband is dead, my son is an orphan, and the man who killed his father is to be his guardian?” Shantell protested.
“That issue is still to be resolved,” Samira said.
“I would be willing to cede the guardianship to Lady Shantell,” Lord Teren said.
“No!” Jasper protested. “She’ll kill the dogs!”
“Jasper!” Shantell’s voice was somewhere between hurt and fury. “Would you favor your father’s killer over your own mother?”
Lena, who was still holding the hand Jasper had slipped into hers when the reading of the will began, gave it a warning squeeze. She leaned over and murmured softly into his ear. “There’s no good reply to that question; don’t even try to answer it.”